Smile 2
Hey everyone and welcome. Today, we will be talking about the film Smile 2. Fun Fact the scar on Skye’s leg is shaped like a smile. This film came out in 2024 and stars Naomi Scott, Rosemarie Dewitt, and Lukas Gage, and was directed by Parker Finn. So, without further ado, let’s get right into it.
Smile 2 picks up after the last film’s events and shows how the smile demon was transferred to superstar Skye Riley. As she tries to figure out what’s going on and how to survive, she is also trying to figure out what is real.
Smile 2 is a psychological horror film. It has similar vibes to Midsommar, The Ring, or It Follows.
Smile 2 has a cool idea, and the film wraps up the story but also leaves the story open to figuring out what’s going on with this demon. I think one thing that fascinates me is how they are able to have a main character who has gone through some stuff in the past, which makes people not believe her. The scares were good and the story had me invested to see what could be done to ensure Skye’s survival.
Skye is played by Naomi Scott, who did a great job portraying Skye as this person who is recovering from a traumatic event while going through another without the help she needs. Naomi also was able to nail the performances, which reminded me she was in Lemonade Mouth, so of course she would. I felt bad for Skye because she really was trying to prove she wasn’t on drugs, but with everything going on, she was not convincing anyone. I love how she tried to get rid of this demon in a way that made sense to me: kill the host to kill the parasite, but the one thing she didn’t factor in is that what she saw might not be real. I do wonder if the way she killed herself will change things because now, many people see Skye’s suicide instead of one.
Having the Smile demon infect Skye, a superstar, lets them bring in a different perspective on how to handle getting rid of it. She has to worry not only about herself but also about her brand and how her past and future affect that. Everything she does is watched closely by either people from the record label or by her fans, so sneaking around is very hard.
Rosemarie Dewitt was Skye’s momager, Elizabeth and she did a great job playing this character who has a hard time splitting the role of mom and manager. She cares about her daughter but she also knows that if she blows this tour then her career is over, which she has irritations about. She has an assistant, Joshua who just seemed like the nicest guy and did everything she asked him to do and tried so hard not to overstep his boundaries. I loved how Elizabeth was able to put on this face when Skye did something bad to show others she wasn’t worried even though she really was.
Lukas Gage plays Lewis, and when we first meet him, he is horrified by what he sees, and then the next time we see him, he is really going through it as he nears the end of his life. He did a good job of showing how you would be freaking out while also trying to not look crazy. His death was shocking and bloody, and I was just as shocked as Skye, and every time he popped up after he died, I was scared. I loved how, with his interaction with the demon, even though we didn’t see it, we knew the moment that it took over.
Kyle Gallner is the only one to return from the last movie, as Joel and Kyle has been in so many horror movies that I enjoy, so I must give him a shoutout for being a scream king. In the last film, we find out that one way to pass the demon is to kill someone violently in front of someone else, and he decides to kill someone to pass the demon but his plan kinda backfires when he kills the person who is supposed to be watching but surprise, Lewis is there hiding. I thought he was smart killing a criminal and not just some random and he was trying not to get caught. He is successful, but while running from criminals, he gets hit and violently dies, which was shocking but also kind of makes me think that passing it on without committing suicide is possible, but the two people who have done that haven’t had great outcomes after.
The Smile Demon is cool to see and I feel like I haven’t seen anything with a design like that. It looks very unsettling, and I love how they show what people are like before and after it enters them, so when you see someone being possessed by it and you don’t see the creature, you know what is happening. I am curious about how to get rid of it, and I love how, with each movie, we see more and more potential options.
The movie has a lot of jump scares that I felt were done well. They really built up the suspense and caught me off guard. The smiling is unsettling as well and I feel like it flushes out this idea of how uncomfortable it is to be stared at.
Marketing using nontraditional methods is something that is often overlooked, and I think this film nailed it. Along with the first film, they implanted people in normal activities doing the creepy smile, which got people talking about the movie, which was genius.
My favorite part of this movie is how they were able to make me question what was real and what was not and even by the end I was unsure. In the first movie, they had a scene when the main character was talking to a therapist, and then the phone rang and it was her therapist, and we realized the demon was in the room with her. In this movie, they take it to another level because we see her friend for about half the movie, and by the end, we realize that she actually hasn’t even been there and it’s been an illusion. I was shocked by that because it was such a big illusion that went across a lot of the movie. There were more instances but I was like shocked at how well they blended it into the movie. Some that I thought were real were fake, some that I thought were fake were real, and some were in the middle. It was done really well in my opinion.
Smile 2 improves on its predecessor and really ups the blood and scares. The cast is amazing and I was scared a generally questioned what was real just like Skye. I look forward to more of these movies because I want to know the past cases and also if anyone will be able to stop it.
